Hello Nerd Lighters! Last Friday on November 20th Nintendo dropped their Legend of Zelda game called Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. I preordered the game and picked it up! I’ve had it all weekend and I’m ready to give you some of my initial thoughts with the game. If you want to know what my expectations were before the game was released you can check it out here. Since this post is only about my initial thoughts I’m not going to dive into every category like I usually would in my game reviews.

Game Mechanics

First up is the game mechanics. Admittedly I did not get the first Hyrule Warriors back in 2014. I believe this was still the Wii/Wii U age so I passed on it. My first hack and slash Zelda game and because of this the controls threw me for a bit. Like I just got used to the buttons today. Today you guys haha! I’m not used to my attack button not being the A button. That’s pretty much my only gripe as I love the attacks you can perform. As you move through the hordes of enemies that controls start to make more sense. The game is heavy on the “ZL,” “ZR,” “L,” and “R” trigger use. It may seem like it’s an excessive use, because I’ve only just started the game but it seems like whenever I need to set myself up for a special move I need to hit one of the triggers. Somehow it just doesn’t feel as natural for my hands. I think this will change over time so I look forward to amending my stance on this in a future post. I believe I started the game on “normal” mode and the difficulty is about average. I struggle with on “The Road to the Ancient Lab” more or less because of my inexperience with the controls on first night I played. By day 2 I had completed this mission faster and slain plenty of Bokoblins. So far the difficulty hasn’t been too hard or a cakewalk. I’m expecting the same level of increase like in Breath of the Wild. Everything is a little difficult until one moment it’s not anymore. I will also add that, like in most games, the more you level up your weapon, the easier it will be to fight certain enemies. This can have an effect on the difficulty as well. I welcome the difficult levels to come.

Story

I love the way Age of Calamity is telling the story. We have lengthy cut scenes with so much information. We’re even getting information on the loading screen, which I will have more on this later. The way the game is seamless as you move from one section of Hyrule to next all while reminding you of all the things you’ve seen in Breath of the Wild. I was particularly interested in how the game was going to include shops and ranches. I am very happy that once you unlock one of these areas you don’t have to do anything else, but buy the supplies you need. I also enjoy getting so much screen time with other characters we weren’t able to see in BotW like the Champions, King Rhoam, Purah, and Robbie. I love the two researchers and love that we get to see them working together in their environment. Another element that the developers brought from Breath of the Wild is the choice of progression. Like it’s predecessor, once you have completed the tutorial of sorts at Hyrule Kingdom, you can go in any order you like as you recruit the Champions for the Divine Beasts. There are suggested levels your character should be if you decide to embark on the quest, but it’s nice to be able to go in the direction you want. There’s only so many things you can have control over in a hack and slash type game, so I’m glad they at least kept this element from Breath of the Wilds. I like where the story is headed and how it’s being set up. From what I’ve read so far, most don’t look for Age of Calamity to be canon. Even if it’s not, it will still be an entertaining story to lead to Breath of the Wild.

Loading Screen

So I wanted to include my thoughts on the loading screen in it’s own section because I really enjoyed the details the developers put into it. I would divide it in two main sections. The first section is as you are choosing a mission, you see the map of Hyrule. Once you have chosen a mission you will either be beamed there, or you will paraglide over with your partners. This leads into the second (an actual) loading screen. This has similarities to Breath of the Wild in that you can read tips that help you throughout the game. The difference is that for this game, you can cycle through these tips. Once you are ready to proceed to your mission the “Next” button will appear. I like this feature because having a toddler means I can’t always sit through my gameplaying. By having that pause before I start gives me a chance to get situated for my mission. Another part of the loading screen that’s new is as you move to the mission, you have a narrated synopsis. Also another detail that I love is you get to see a little drawing of each character in the way of the old tapestry where we see the story of the first Calamity take place. It’s just like when you got all of the Divine Beasts in Breath of the Wild and another little icon would be added on the loading screen. It’s the same except now it’s based on the playable characters. I really appreciated the details the put into even just the loading screen.

Final Thoughts

I’m enjoying the game so far. I’m interested in the story since there is definitely some time travel involved. I think it’s safe to say this fortuneteller is the main antagonist of the game and I’m going to have to fight him soon enough. I look forward to seeing how the Champions fight and how the game continues to show what exactly happened before Calamity Ganon was released. I will hopefully have gained Mipha, Daruk, and Revali so I can write about their powers and abilities. Until then, peace!